Employer watch points

We’ve identified
the top five challenges faced by companies reporting their pay gaps.

Companies who
strive for best practice want to get the most out of their pay gap reporting. The
best way to do this is to ensure you have a good grasp of the barriers women face at work, how to analyse your pay gap data and how to translate this
into action.

Even the
best companies can make a mistake in their pay gap reporting. It’s helpful to
know where it can go wrong but doesn’t have to.

Our
employer watchpoints will help you to tackle these issues before reporting and
be a best practice company.

1. Building your gender pay gap knowledge

Whether this
is the third time you’re reporting your pay gap data or the first, it’s really
important to build your knowledge and understanding of the gender pay gap and
its causes. Most companies don’t have dedicated gender pay gap expertise in
their organisation, whilst others might not know where to begin. A good
understanding of the causes of the pay gap, and their solutions, is essential
to tackle workplace gender inequality.

This site
has a range of resources which can help you build this knowledge.

Close the Gap also
offers bespoke training
and guidance to help you be a leader on gender
equality at work.

2. Producing best practice analysis

It’s
important to develop a good quality analysis of your pay gap data. This should set out the gender equality concerns you have identified in your data.

Many companies assume there isn't and issue in their organisation. You may feel confident you would never
intentionally discriminate against women. However, unintentional discrimination
and inequalities are present in almost all employers.

Being a leader in gender equality and diversity means
acknowledging challenges and taking ownership of what you
can do to create positive change.

The Close Your Pay Gap tool can provide you with a set
of bespoke actions to help you close your gender pay gap and be a best practice
company.

3. Developing actions that work

Identifying
the key issues in your workplace is a great start, but it is vital to translate
these into action. A good understanding of the causes of the pay gap will help
you to do this effectively.

Closing your
gender pay gap needs a set of actions which
speaks to each of the issues you have identified. It’s also important to look
at how existing actions are progressing so you can tailor these to be as
effective as possible.

The Close Your Pay Gap tool can generate a range of targeted and effective actions
which you can use to build your action plan.

4. Tracking, timescales, targets, teamwork

The best way
to make the most of your gender pay gap action plan is to assign accountability.
Put simply, what gets measured gets managed.

The best
quality actions have targets and timescales to focus minds and enable you to
track progress. Delegating responsibility for each action to key people in your
organisation will help to ensure they are prioritised and progressed.

Close the
Gap offers a consultancy service to develop a bespoke action plan with
the right targets, timescales and indicators for your company.

5. Promoting your progress

Once you
have the right foundations in place, you’re going to want to talk about all the
good work you’ve been doing. Reporting on progress is a great way to share your
successes and good practice and to be accountable to your employees, to shareholders,
and to the public. Also, make sure you maintain active links to
your last three years’ reports on your website. This is a key requirement of
the regulations.

Full reporting, of both successes and challenges,
is a clear sign of a best practice company. It makes
good business sense to put your company in the best position to close your pay
gap and be a leader on gender equality and diversity in the workplace.

Use our tools today to
make reporting simple and receive your bespoke analysis and action plan.